10 frugal family fun ideas for Spring….

1.  Make your own Easter Egg hunt to keep the kids occupied for a few hours over the Easter weekend.  We usually hide an Easter Egg as the main prize at the end of the hunt but leave a few little mini eggs with each clue along the way.  If you’d prefer to go to an organised Easter Egg hunt, we always have fun at our local Cadburys/National Trust egg hunt which takes place at a lovey National Trust property near us – it cost us £1 last year and we spent a lovely few hours in the grounds of the property searching for clues.  At the end we all got an Easter Egg so it was well worth the entry fee.  There’s lots of similar events being held across the country – look for your nearest one here.

2.  What about having a Sunflower growing competition – everyone can plant their own sunflower and you can see who’s grows the tallest. You can start them off indoors around this time of year and then pop them outside when they’ve grown a little or you can just sow them directly outside from April time.

3.  Wash your car together – or just let the kids do it by themselves.  Seriously, you would be amazed at how much fun they’ll have and you get the added benefit of a clean (if a little streaky) car when they’re done.

4. I love the ideas on the Woodland Trust website to get you outside and experiencing nature – they have everything from pond dipping to mini beast hunts and woodland walks.  They even have indoor printables for the inevitable rainy days!

5.  Have some fun and do some science at the same time by making Gloop.  It costs next to nothing to make and really is great fun to play with – even I couldn’t resist having a play.  As you’ll see from the photo below though, it’s clearly an activity that is better done outside

6.  Take full advantage of your local museums and libraries.  Have a read of this post to see what we do before each school holiday to make sure we don’t miss any fun activities going on in the area.

7.  Have a baking day together.  I’ve blogged lots of recipes that are great for cooking with kids and you get to eat all the yummy goodies after.

8.  Make a little vegetable patch in the garden and grow a few different types of vegetables.  If space is an issue, even just a few pots on your kitchen windowsill will be fun and I’ve found that it helps fussy eaters to try new things if they’ve helped to grow them.  There’s quite a good guide here if you’re interested.

9.  Find out where other parents recommend in your area by looking on the Netmums site.  I’ve just found this link that breaks the UK down into areas and gives you the best free activities in your area.  A few of the ones listed for my area are places that I would never have thought of so I’m glad I found it.

10.  Have a go at Geocaching – if you don’t know what it is or you haven’t tried it then you really need to have a look at the website and see what it’s all about.

Above all, spend time together as a family.

(I did publish this last year but I was just going to write something similar to celebrate the sunshine when I remembered this post.  I hope you don’t mind reading it again if you caught it first time around.)